How To Get An FPS (Frames Per Second) Counter In iOS Games & Apps

The option to overlay PC games with an FPS (Frames Per Second) counter to gauge performance has been around for a while through a host of gameplay recording and benchmarking apps as well as digital distribution and multiplayer platforms the likes of Valve’s Steam and Ubisoft’s Uplay.

One would think the same feature wouldn’t be required on mobile devices, but with an ever-growing repository of smartphones and tablets out there, each yielding differing levels of performance for countless mobile games, the inquisitive among us will want to know how our devices fare against the requirements of the latest software on offer. Android-powered devices already have a couple apps that display a live FPS counter for the entire OS or log frame rates in the background to create performance reports, which is understandable, considering the open-source platform has a way larger number of devices under its belt compared to its biggest rival, Apple’s iOS.

That being said, Apple has begun to support a larger repertoire of devices with latest firmware as well, and let’s not forget the company’s many customers who’re content using even older devices. The ability to measure performance across different apps and games may not be as big of a focus on iOS devices, or all mobile devices, for that matter, but that doesn’t users won’t like to have the option. That’s probably what developer Zhidog was thinking while creating FPSCounter, a jailbreak tweak for iOS 9+ that, as its name suggests, overlays any app with a live frame rate counter. The counter is displayed within a small, mostly-unnoticeable rectangle that is color-coded to match the frame rate. It appears in the top-left corner of landscape-oriented games and apps while in portrait orientation, it is shifted to the top and middle of the screen.

The tweak adds its own configuration menu within the Settings app, allowing you to select the apps within which you want the counter to be displayed. Unfortunately, as of this writing, the tweak isn’t nearly as free of problems as you’d want it to be. It doesn’t seem to work with all apps and games.

In fact, out of the 10 games we tested it with, it only fully worked with one (namely, Angry Birds 2), though it did force the status bar to become visible, obscuring certain elements of the game. With the rest, it either simply failed to display the counter, displayed the counter across the middle of the screen, or caused the game to crash either on launch or past the main menu. The four apps we tested with the tweak all ended up crashing.

It is free, though, and the only solution of its kind that we’ve come across on the jailbreak store. Also, there’s a possibility We’d recommend downloading the tweak to your device and keeping an eye out for updates containing fixes.

If you know of a similar solution that works without the aforementioned flaws, do let us know in the comments section below!

I'm an engineer, blogger, and graphic designer who loves creating and experimenting with different forms of online content when he's not looking for a mix of inspiration and escape in PC gaming, comic books and anime. You can find me on Twitter and Google+.